Abbas’s Fatah to announce results of internal vote

Ramallah / AFP

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party is to announce results of a vote for its ruling bodies Sunday, an election watched closely for clues of how the 81-year-old sees his succession.
The election for both the party’s central committee and its parliament, known as the revolutionary council, is also expected to sideline Abbas opponents — a key reason for holding the vote, some analysts say.
Beginning on Tuesday, some 1,400 delegates met in Ramallah for Fatah’s first congress since 2009 and voted in the elections.
At the congress’s opening, Abbas was re-elected head of the party.
Following Yasser Arafat’s death in 2004, the ageing leader has been in charge of Fatah, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority.
A number of those seen as opposing Abbas were not invited to the congress, and one of his main rivals, Mohammmed Dahlan, is being replaced on the central committee.
Dahlan is currently in exile in the United Arab Emirates and Abbas reportedly resisted pressure from Arab nations to allow him to return.
Observers saw the reduced number of delegates eligible to vote — down from more than 2,000 in 2009 — as part of a move to exclude Dahlan supporters.
The central committee is to include 18 members, plus four who are nominated, while the parliament will have 80 elected members and around 40 who are appointed.